The British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), carried out at the Institute for Social and Economic Research of the University of Essex, is an instrument for social and economic research. A sample of British households was drawn and first interviewed in 1991. The members of these original households have since been followed and annually interviewed. The resulting data base is very popular among social scientists for quantitative analyses of social and economic change. One of the most important precursors of the BHPS is the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), established in the 60s at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA).